Contraceptive rule angers some church leaders

An Obama administration decision requiring church-affiliated employers to include contraceptive services in employee health plans has sparked protests from Catholics and other groups who say it assaults their religious freedom.

Under the new federal rule, which will be phased in over the next 18 months, most employers and insurance plans will be required to cover birth control free of charge as preventive care for women.

Churches and houses of worship would be exempt but affiliated organizations, such as hospitals, colleges and charities would not.

In a letter to be published in church bulletins this week and next, Bishop Robert H. Brom, head of the San Diego Diocese, calls on parishioners to lobby Congress to reverse the law that he said “strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for citizens of any faith.”

Last Sunday, Catholic bishops in more than 140 dioceses issued similar statements denouncing the decision that were read at each weekend Mass.

In his letter, Brom said the law would affect local Catholic schools, social services such as Father Joe’s Villages and Catholic Charities.

“In so ruling, the Obama Administration is denying Catholics the fundamental freedom of religious liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” Brom wrote. “Unless the rule is overturned, we will be compelled either to violate our consciences or to drop health coverage for our employees and thus suffer severe penalties.”

The wave of protest has clearly surprised the White House. Federal officals had issued an early version of the rule in August with the church exemption.

The furor erupted two weeks ago, when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the exemption would not include nonprofit employers who don’t offer contraception in health plans because of religious beliefs. Those employers have until Aug. 1, 2013, to comply.

Most other employers must cover contraception without copay or deductible beginning Aug. 1.

The protests included criticism Thursday from House Speaker John Boehner, a Catholic, who called the requirement unconstitutional.

“I think it violates the rights of these religious organizations,” Boehner said. “And I would hope that the administration would back up and take another look at this.”

Joining in was Democrats for Life of America, a group of anti-abortion lawmakers who provided the margin of victory pushing the administration’s health care reform law through Congress in 2010.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration won’t reconsider the decision. “There was extensive and careful consideration as this policy was developed and a decision was made,” he said Thursday. “And the issue here is we want to be sure women, all women, have access to good health care.”

Though leaders of the Catholic Church and some conservative Protestant denominations have protested the law, that hasn’t been the case universally.

The national Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice — whose member organizations include both Protestant denominations and branches of Judaism — has supported the new rule.

“The rule is long overdue,” said coalition board member Madison Shockley, pastor of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad. “It brings women’s health closer to the standard of men’s health.”